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Confident Flintoff is ‘the man’ but sterner challenges loom

By Shane Warne

September 9 2004, 1:00am, The Times

COMING to the end of the season there seems to be one name on people’s lips: Andrew Flintoff. He has had an amazing summer and I don’t think anybody was surprised when he was named one-day player of the year at the ICC awards on Tuesday. Ricky Ponting had a good year as well, but you won’t hear any players complaining about the choice.

Flintoff has the personality to be “the man” and I think he gets off on that. He isn’t pretending to be a character. And he gets the odd break because of his confidence and self-belief. It is no coincidence. Players who change games are the ones who back themselves and have an aura that sends signals to the opposition.